House Critic

Syndicated Columnist Patrick Buchanan has been one of the Reagan Administration's sternest critics from the right. He has taken a harder line than the President on arms control, and described a modest jobs bill backed by Reagan as part of "a series of calculated maneuvers to soften the image of Mr. Conservative into Mr. Conciliation." Buchanan has been even more suspicious of his colleagues in the press: as a White House speechwriter from 1969 to 1974, he crafted some of Vice President Spiro Agnew's most caustic attacks on the news media. In a column last year Buchanan described the nation's major news organizations as "the polemical and publicity arm of American liberalism."

So it was with some bemusement last week that the Washington press corps learned that Buchanan had been named White House director of communications, with responsibility for selling his friends in the Administration to his friends in the media. The appointment was a concession to Reagan's right-wing supporters, who want greater representation on the White House staff. Said Washington Post White House Correspondent Lou Cannon: "The question is, How can you be an effective spokesman for policies and people you yourself don't agree with?" White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan acknowledged Buchanan's potential conflicts: "I reminded Pat of an old phrase, 'accepting the King's shilling.' He agrees that he will support the Administration's final position." Toward the press, however, Buchanan has shown no comparable mellowing: at week's end he was not returning telephone calls from reporters seeking comment on his appointment.